A Photographic Big Year for the Birds- Throughout 2013 I will photograph as many bird species as possible in a "Photographic Big Year". I'm aiming for 500. The purpose of this big year and blog is to raise awareness and donations for the American Bird Conservancy's work with endangered birds in Hawaii. Please consider supporting their effort. Click on the "Donate" tab below for more information.

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Friday, May 31, 2013

Arizona Day 1

After a lot of driving, Kevin and I made it to Arizona on the afternoon of May 24th. It was the heat of the day, so we figured feeders might be our best bet. The feeders in Portal had a lot of activity, including some very low Band-tailed Pigeons. They scattered as soon as we got there. However, many of the typical desert Arizona birds continued to feed.

Black-headed Grosbeak

Curve-billed Thrasher

Gambel's Quail

Last year I got my one and only Juniper Titmouse at a feeder in Paradise, AZ, just outside of Portal. We had great luck at this feeder with wonderful looks at Scott's Oriole and Juniper Titmouse, among many other species.

Scott's Oriole on jam

Juniper Titmouse

Once again in Portal, near the grocery store, we scored Hooded Oriole, Cactus Wren and a Lucy's Warbler! The year birds were coming fast and easy.

Cactus Wren

Hooded Oriole

Lucy's Warbler

As the sun went down, the birding got even better. We had dinner while watching 4 Lesser Nighthawks patrol a dry wash, flying only feet away from us. We heard an Elf Owl, but a huge group of people came out of nowhere and were very loud, so Kevin and I went toward Stuart Campground in the mountains in hopes of less people and more owls.

We had another Elf Owl here, quite cooperative. I attempted a photograph, and I guess it turned out alright.

Elf Owl

We also heard Common Poorwill and Mexican Whip-poor-will. We moved up canyon a bit and lucked into some Whiskered Screech-Owls.

Whiskered Screech-Owl (notice the dull yellow bill)

I have some cool voice recordings of the Screech-Owls calling back and forth to each other that I will upload when I actually have a decent internet connection (could be a while).

I have many more pictures from Arizona to sort through, and I won't be uploading all the common birds to this blog. They can be found on the flickr page here.

More pictures when I have some free time. I'm in California/Nevada and camping without internet or cell service for the most part. The birds and butterflies are great, though. More soon!